AAP’s pragmatism in economic policy welcome

The AAP’s lack of ideological baggage is welcome, though this very fluidity lends some uncertainty in its functions.

We welcome the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP's) economic world view, as set out in an interview to this paper on Tuesday, by Yogendra Yadav. Despite its refusal to countenance foreign direct investment (FDI) in Delhi's supermarkets, Yadav explained that AAP is not against FDI per se, or against any kind of investment that could lead to growth and create jobs. The AAP claims to have moved beyond Left or Right orthodoxies in policymaking.

While choosing across policies, it says that it would choose the one that would be the most socially optimal. It expects to be rigorously empirical: if something works, the AAP will persist with it; if it doesn't, it will be dumped in favour of other alternatives. This, Yadav says, is the "smartest way of being people friendly".

The AAP's lack of ideological baggage is welcome, though this very fluidity lends some uncertainty in its functions. That can be an advantage, as we saw when the party chose issues to base its electoral campaign on, in Delhi.

But crowd sourcing ideas can be damaging as well: the midnight vigilantism of law minister Somnath Bharti was apparently provoked by calls from some residents who live in the neighbourhood. Faced with choices that help or offend different groups, AAP will have to make tough choices of its own. Merely crowd sourcing ideas will not help when faced with contending claims.

One such controversial issue is land acquisition. Yadav seemed to indicate that AAP would favour the state acquiring land for "public purposes", defined precisely and narrowly. Land for private, profitmaking ventures would have to be acquired by the businesses themselves. This is a sensible point to start from. The AAP says it has 31 committees working on policy solutions. We wish them luck.